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Carlos Quintero, PHD Student, Soil and Water Sciences, Carlosjquintero@ufl.edu
Water
Poster
Extremely High Soil PCO2 in Big Cypress Wetlands
Karst landscapes are formed by water acting upon carbonate rocks, the dissolution or denudation of which can be facilitated by the presence of CO2. Carbonate dissolution by way of carbonic acid takes place when CO2 becomes dissolved and hydrated to form Carbonic acid, the most common weathering agent for all rock types (Martin et al, 2013). Two major sources for CO2 for carbonate dissolution include The Atmosphere, with a CO2 concentration of around 0.04% PCO2, and remineralized soils which have the ability to create environments in which CO2 concentrations exceed those of the atmosphere by orders of magnitude (Martin et al, 2013). As part of a greater NSF project to look at the mechanisms of patterning and landscape formation of Cypress Domes within Big Cypress National Park, we outfitted two wetlands with CO2 sensors modified for aquatic deployments. When inundated, soils at the center of these wetlands were found to contain extremely high PCO2 concentrations often exceeding the range of our sensors >20%. This is significant because the extremely high PCO2 concentrations in these wetlands create the perfect environment for CO2 gas to diffuse into water, become hydrated, and then proceed to dissolve away the underlying bedrock and form the landscape we see today.
Martin, J. B., Brown, a, & Ezell, J. (2013). Do carbonate karst terrains affect the global carbon cycle? Acta Carsologica, 42(2-3), 187–196. Retrieved from O:\Projets\nen\ncours\Documentation\Bibliotheque_Numerique\Martin_2013.pdf
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